


'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

by sladeninstitute



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Fluff, M/M, No Angst, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2013-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-05 08:51:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1091976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sladeninstitute/pseuds/sladeninstitute
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim has been waiting to do this for years, seeing as his childhood never really allowed for happy Christmases. Together with Bones, Jim is determined to make their Christmas tree the best one at Starfleet Academy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> A big thank you to tumblr user nicolashalden for the conversation that led to this being written!

"Boooooooones." Jim was leaning over the bed, shaking Bones vigorously.

"Gerroff me, kid. L'skin you alive. M'not kidding." Bones wanted nothing more than to fall back asleep. It was the beginning of winter break and Bones wasn't required to be back in the med bay until several days after New Years. For Bones, that meant time to catch up on all the rest that he didn't get during the academic year. Having Jim wake him up at the asscrack of dawn wasn't what he had planned, what he had wanted, or even what he'd expected. He sure as hell wasn't thrilled about it.

"Bones, c'mon. You promised!" Jim was pulling the "hurt puppy" voice that got Bones to acquiesce and do just about anything Jim wanted, when he wanted it. For the moment, however, he was managing to stand his ground.

"I did no such thing."

"Yeah you did! Last night, before you fell asleep. Remember? I'd just finished giving you the best blowjob of your life and I asked if you would decorate the tree with me today. You said yeah and then I asked if you promised and you said that you did. I'm collecting on this promise, Bones." 

Bones's heart sank. He vaguely remembered that, although he didn't know why the hell he agreed to it. 

"Fine. Give me five minutes?" He removed his arm from his face, blinking one eye open to gauge Jim's response. He looked like he was stuck somewhere between pouting and exploding with joy.

"Five minutes, Bones. If you're not out of the bed by then I'm coming back harder than ever."

"Is that one of your goddamn innuendos, Jim?"

"It can if you want it to be." Jim gave Bones a pat on the shoulder before he returned to his seat on the couch. Bones rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but it was a futile endeavour. He'd been awake long enough to cross over the threshold into unwavering awakeness. Trying to sleep again would only result in him tossing and turning until he finally gave in and decided to crawl out of bed. In his case, it took all of two minutes to give in.

Bones sat straight up in his bed, briefly shooting the evil eye in Jim's direction. It quickly morphed into a look of sheer confusion when he noted that Jim was practically covered in Christmas lights. Better than that, it looked like the kid was struggling with trying to untangle them.

"Is that your Christmas costume or are you just havin' a hard time over there?"

It was Jim's turn to shoot Bones the evil eye.

"Ha ha, very funny. No, I was taking the lights out of the box and trying to untangle them," he gestured at himself "but this happened."

Bones rolled off the bed, tugging his pants up from where they'd slid down overnight. His original plan was simply to remove the lights that had completely engulfed Jim, but a better idea formed in his head. He took Jim by the hands and stood him up, moving him towards the nearest outlet. Jim shot him a "what the hell are you doing" look but said nothing. The doctor fumbled around the string of lights until he found the plug, pushing it into the wall outlet. His boyfriend lit up in a beautiful array of lights.

"Looks like we're done decoratin' the tree, aren't we?" Bones had a smirk on his face that didn't falter in the slightest when Jim looked at him in equal parts horror and irritation.

"I think I understand what it's like to be in your shoes, Bones. You're just as irritating as you can be today." The younger man tapped his foot impatiently. "You think you can get these lights off of me and onto the tree now?"

Bones nodded and started to take them off, but not before he grabbed his PADD and took a quick picture of Jim all decked out in Christmas lights. Jim wanted him to delete it but Bones vehemently refused. It was, quite possibly, the cutest thing he'd ever seen. Not that he'd tell Jim that. (Jim already knew it but refused to call his boyfriend out on it.)

With the lights off of Jim and now strung around the tree in a downward spiral, things were already looking good. Hell, Bones would've been happy to leave the tree like that. He knew that wouldn't fly with Jim, who'd see it as half-assing, so he didn't even bother to bring the idea up with his partner. 

"C'mon. Let's get this done." Bones was the picture of seriousness now, his mind already wrapping itself around how to decorate it in the best way possible in the least time.

"Bones. Can I ask you something?"

"This is the first Christmas tree I've ever gotten to decorate. You think we could take our time with it? I can already see you trying to decorate it in as little time as possible, but I don't want to do that. I want us to take our time and enjoy it. Christmas only comes once a year, right?" This wasn't Jim being funny or anything less than completely and totally earnest. "Also, could we try and make it as pretty as possible?"

"Okay, darlin'. We can take our time." Bones returned his gaze to the tree, thinking about how to decorate it to make it look as pretty as possible. "What if we --"

Bones found himself cut off, turning around to find Jim holding up ornaments to his ears and pretending that they were earrings. 

"Tell me, how do I look?"

"Oh, fabulous, Jim. Absolutely stunnin'. You're a real fashion model."

Bones knew at that moment that there was no way they could finish in a short amount of time, even if Jim hadn't made a point of asking to draw out the decorating process.

\--

Decorating the tree took hours, not that Bones particularly minded. Once he'd gotten into it, the time flew. He'd even managed to drop some of the grouchiness that he carried around, throwing himself into the fun like Jim had done.

The PADD that he'd used to take a picture of Jim with was now filled to the brink with ridiculous photos. There was one of himself pretending that a long strand of tinsel was a feather boa, a photo of Jim running around with the starship shaped ornaments (he had been screaming "zoom zoom warp warp" the whole time, but Bones had clicked photo instead of video), a picture of the two of them sitting under the tree with a pile of ornaments surrounding them, and several others. 

By the time that they'd finished, night had settled over San Francisco. What had started at 07:00 in the morning had taken all day. It'd been completely worth it, Bones reflected, to see Jim light up like he had. The doctor had always been a fan of Christmas, but Jim's reaction to the whole holiday had only made him like it that much more. They'd have to make it a tradition. 

\--

"See, Bones. Wasn't this worth getting up early for?" Jim had his arms wrapped tightly around his boyfriend's torso, pulling him in closer. The Christmas tree was right in front of the couch that they were laying on, lighting up the whole room in a vibrant shock of reds, greens, blues, and oranges. Ornaments twinkled and danced in the light, the whole tree sagging slightly under the weight of all that they'd placed upon it. 

"Do you want me to lie to you or give you the honest to god answer?"

"Honesty's always the best policy, babe."

"It was worth it."

Jim lit up like a Christmas tree (how fitting, Bones thought) and pressed a kiss to Bones's cheek. The doctor could feel himself go red from head to toe, and a particularly funny thought struck him square in the chest. If Jim was a Christmas tree, Bones had to be Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He only hoped that Jim didn't make the same connection, because they both knew that Jim would never let him live it down.

"So, Rudolph...?" Bones let out a long groan, forgetting that Jim was practically a damn mind reader.

It was going to be a long holiday break.

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a short little thing that I decided to write since Christmas is just around the corner. If you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope that you have a happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, or other holiday!


End file.
